Wacken Open Air

Wacken Open Air (/ˈvɑːkən/, abbreviated as W:O:A) is a heavy metal music festival, held yearly since 1990 on the first weekend of August in the village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is often called the world's biggest and most renowned metal festival, or the "Mecca of heavy metal". The four-day event involves around 200 bands, is attended by around 85,000 metalheads from more than 80 countries, and takes place on a 240-hectare site including campgrounds. Wacken has two main stages and several smaller stages, as well as areas with stalls, beer tents and entertainment; including a medieval-themed 'Wackinger' village and apocalyptic-themed 'Wasteland'. Wacken Open Air has long focused on traditional heavy metal and extreme metal genres such as power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, doom metal, industrial, symphonic and folk metal. Locals had always been involved with the festival. However, in recent years Wacken has included more mainstream and alt-metal bands as headliners, become more commercialized and attracted non-metalhead 'festival tourists', upsetting long-time attendees.

Several documentaries have been made about Wacken, and many bands have recorded live albums at the festival. WOA also runs the Wacken Metal Battle, an international battle of the bands contest for unsigned bands.